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Last night I joined Nerd Fitness Academy, today I'm making my first post, tomorrow I'm committing to walking for ten minutes, and then Thursday I turn 35. My birthday gift to myself is to NOT wait until Thursday to start all of this - but rather to go into my new year already feeling healthier. Bread is a huge temptation for me... and today I specifically chose to have chicken tenders instead of a big ol' sandwich. I know, that still isn't exactly "healthy" (quotation marks? Really?) but it isn't a huge hunk of bread. And it's something. It's a conscious choice that I made, and I plan to do the same tomorrow too. One day, one small step. Sleep is my kryptonite. Or reverse kryptonite? I mean, if I don't have enough, I get weak, wobbly, the world spins on its axis and I'm all kinds of useless. Not just tired, but actually physically ill. So that's going to be a big thing that I work on here. Getting enough sleep. Once upon a time I was a far stronger, healthier body. I'd put myself in a Ranger/Assassin sort of range - though I loathed running and couldn't do much of it, I was able to run and was stupidly strong. Now... I just feel like my body is stupid. But I'm determined to get back on course. My thought right now it to follow a Druid Assassin path; get my mind and body working together instead of in opposition. I have depression and anxiety in my utility belt and I'd prefer it if they came out to play far less frequently than they have been lately. Their appearances are inversely proportional to how healthy my life is at any given moment. So there's that. MY GOALs (January, 2015): Eat less than three sandwiches per week through the end of the month Go to sleep before 11pm the majority of January's remaining nights Walk at least ten minutes at least six times between now and February Find the missing screws that are keeping me from putting together the bed in the guest room, and finally build the damn thing.

Hi everyone, My name is Ange and I'm an adventurer with some inklings to be a warrior, but as I'm an overweight and unfit full time cook who hasn't lifted weights in months if not years, I have a long way to go. I also want to be a regular runner and even have the goal of the Great Wall of China half-marathon in May to work towards, but I still need the kick in the butt that I'm hoping this six week challenge will bring. My three goals are meant to be easy as one-two-three: Eat only vegetarian stuff for one day a week. Go to the gym (either a group fitness class or a weights session) two times a week. Go for a run (either on a treadmill or outdoors) three times a week.Of course, any more than this will be awesome. If I don't keep up with my goals in a given week, I will try to make up for them in the following week. The plan to achieve these goals is pretty straightforward: I'm a cook by trade, so if I make myself a vegetarian meal whilst on shift I can eat it then and there or take the leftovers home. I will be shopping for mostly vegetarian foods and snacks to fill my pantry/fridge at home. It should be easy enough to designate one of my days off as a vegetarian-only day. My housemate regularly attends an outdoor boot camp, a work colleague is a member of a civilian gym that runs group fitness classes, and I have access to a free gym. I will be designing my own basic weights program to follow if I can't make it to the aforementioned classes within a given week. I want to get used to running outdoors and in relatively hot/humid conditions, but if the going gets tough I will use a treadmill instead. I have signed up to a half-marathon training program on RunKeeper so that three runs a week are scheduled in my iPhone. I am also using the Zombies, Run! 5K and regular game for additional motivation to run outdoors.I'll be blogging at stuficionado.net and you can follow me at @angeftw on twitter if you're feeling so inclined. I look forward to updating you on my progress, hearing about yours, and generally cheering you guys on! -- Ange (forthewin )

Hello, my fellow nerd-ites! I've been contemplating my challenge goals recently and crafted some good ones. I'll continue to craft this today to get it fine tuned with points and such. (I just want to get the basic info down now so I have it documented.) As the title hints at, I've had an attack of the groans lately. After this holiday eating fest, I'm groaning at some of the bad habits I've re-picked up over the month. So, what do you do when you have a case of the groans? You do something about it... even if my body groans with disapproval at the impending effort to beat it and my mind into submission. Overview: Heath & Fitness Tame the Beast Realistic: Limit intake of sugar to 1-2 items a day. Ideal: Consume zero sugar all day. Rest for the Weary (REVISED) Realistic: 6-7 hrs of sleep 5 days a week Ideal: 8 hrs of sleep every night in a week Move the Mountain (these can be substitued for something else if I find something I really like, and I AM looking) Realistic: Complete 2 body weight workouts every week Ideal: Complete 3 body weight workouts every week Level Up Your Life (REVISED) Learning is Growing Realistic: Take 3 courses total at www.udemy.com or elsewhere (ehow.com) and level up my knowledge and skills in various areas. Ideal: Take 6 courses total at www.udemy.com or elsewhere (ehow.com) and level up my knowledge and skills in various areas.Spiritual Health (bonus) Path of the Paladin Realistic: Reading the Bible once a day at least 6 days of the week. Ideal: Reading the Bible everyday, three times a day (like eating). Detail Explanation: Heath & Fitness Tame the Beast I have picked back up the bad habit of eating sweets again. Drinking sweet tea, etc. I have to nip this in the bud and stop it ASAP. The only way I'm going to do this is if I get tough on myself. I'm limiting myself to 2 items a day, but idealy I want to eat zero sugar laden things as possible. I did say 1-2 because there's just some sauces and things that I will not have control over. Rest for the Weary (REVISED) I woke up late and rushed to work, arriving late this morning. I normally sleep okay, but on 6 hours of sleep. I need to start tracking this and try to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night so I can stop stalling my health progression. After all, I keep hearing that poor sleep habits can hinder weight loss. Move the Mountain (these can be substituted for something else if I find something I really like, and I AM looking) I'm terrified of this goal. I failed this MISERABLY last challenge with 30% completion. I just couldn't motivate myself to do any body weight workouts. I dreaded them. I really really really need to do some workout since I don't have a gym membership and I have girly weights here at the house (thank's to my awesome wife). I'm putting this back on here to push myself to find something enjoyable about it or find a suitable substitution. Necessity is the mother of invention I will still toss in walks into the week, but I won't rate myself goal wise on them this time.Level Up Your Life (REVISED) Learning is Growing I was challenged by my brother-n-law and a mutual friend, to keep learning. Life never stops moving and we need to always be bettering ourselves in every way possible. They turned me onto this website udemy.com, which has tons of online courses for all sorts of topics. There are a lot of paid courses, but there are also a LOT of free courses too. I'm going to try to further my abilities as a web designer with some basic coding classes and such. I'll also just be looking for useful things to learn, like how to calculate letter grades in Excel for my tracking worksheet I need to adjust this because the udemy.com courses are VERY indepth.. the first free class I signed up for has 24 sessions! So I'm thinking, even though the sessions aren't very long, that I can truly commit to learning them about 3 - 6 over the course of this challenge. I'm shooting for 3, but will do more if I have time.Spiritual Health (bonus) Path of the Paladin As it's often been said, Christianity is a relationship not a religion. My relationship with God has been slacking lately and that's completely on me. I haven't been taking time daily to spend time reading the Bible and in prayer. I want to work on this area of my life because I firmly believe that you have to be healthy in all areas of life. If this area suffers, then everywhere else suffers too. I'm going to get back to taking the time to read daily. You'll notice I'm not putting a number here like "a chapter a day" etc. The point is to be organic with this like any other relationship. I want to spend at least one time a day on this, but if possible, I want to get in a habit of spending more time, maybe three times a day just taking a moment to read the Bible and meditate on it. It's like getting spiritual food/nourishment (I'll also be adding my starting stats here. In addition I am creating a spreadsheet that I'll link in my handle to track my progress as I post on here)

This is the accountability team forum for Resistance Is Futile (Adventurer class) - 2013 Challenge #1

Starting point: Age: 19 Weight: 143 lbs Height: 5'7" (ish--I don't have a good way to measure) I'm on a psychological leave from college this semester, and I'm going to use that time to change! Otherwise, I might not be able to go back in the fall. That's a pretty big motivator for me. Diet goal: Eat at least three servings of fruits or vegetables a day. I've been eating less, and normally do all right with eating few sweets, but I have a difficult time getting in fruits and veggies! CON: +2 Fitness goal: Stretch every day. I dance when I'm at school, and just because I'm not dancing at the moment (there's no dancing within an hour's drive of my home!) doesn't mean I shouldn't get more flexible! DEX: +1, CON: +2 Fitness goal: Walk or do something that gets my heart working at least five minutes a day, and at least twenty minutes three times a week. I have asthma and have terrible cardiovascular health, but I'm going to start taking my asthma medications and work on that! STA: +5 Life goal: Complete 2 job applications a day, at least until I have a job or volunteer position. I need to prove to my college and family, but most of all myself, that I can be an adult and handle having responsibilities. The way to do that is to get and hold a job or volunteer position for the next several months. This ought to also help my social and psychological issues. WIS: +4 [Overarching quest related to this: Slay my demons! I'm counting points for efforts made in conquering my issues.] Other assorted tasks I hope to accomplish: See a physical therapist about my knee injury, get my personal hygiene habits down, spend more time with people to help get over my various issues [side quest: Disguise as a villager! Counting points for successes being around people]. These goals all seem easy to me...but then, if they were that easy, I would've already done them! Let's get this started!